Methods and systems for interactive television

ABSTRACT

An interactive TV device is configured to receive and process multiple broadband input streams simultaneously. The device includes functionality to perform as a Web browser, HF, cable and satellite TV receiver, a digital PVR, an interactive TV set-top box, an advanced central processing unit and a videoconferencing device, thanks to an integrated videoconferencing camera. The present interactive TV device is configured to manage all multimedia sources identically, whether the input is a TV channel, a Web page, or a video stream played back from a data carrier such as a DVD, for example. The present interactive TV device is also configured to enable a user to watch and record a plurality of video streams simultaneously and to display them on four independently manageable quarter screen segments.

This is a continuation of previously filed copending application Ser.No. 09/932,282, filed Aug. 17, 2001, which application is herebyincorporated herein in its entirety and from which priority is herebyclaimed under 35 U.S.C. §120.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention pertains generally to the field of interactive televisionsystems. More particularly, the present invention is drawn to methodsand systems for enabling users to easily customize and manage virtuallyall forms of electronic communications including, for example, alltelevision, video recording, videoconferencing and Internet-relatedactivities.

2. Description of the Related Art

Conventional broadcast or cable television generally is limited to thetransfer of information from a content provider to the user. Interactivetelevision, although long forecasted, has thus far failed to materializeas a commercially viable product. In its most basic form, interactivetelevision (hereafter “interactive TV”) includes a TV system in whichthe flow of information is or can be bidirectional. Generally,conventional interactive TV enables the viewer to interact at some levelwith the TV and offers an enhanced level of service to the user, whichmay include video on demand, games and home shopping and banking.Moreover, interactive TV has come to include such functions as PVRs, orpersonal video recorders, which combine a large storage capacity with auser interface to enable the user to digitally record and playbackselected TV shows or events. By significantly simplifying the process ofselecting and recording television programs, PVRs have accelerated thetrend initiated by the videocassette recorder (VCR) toward time shiftedviewing; that is, viewing a previously recorded program at the user'sconvenience rather than at a schedule dictated by the content provider.

However, current PVRs are believed to be limited in their functionalityas they are essentially limited to recording live television andproviding the user with access to a number of services such as weather,financial information, TV guide, etc. Conventional interactive TVdevices such as those marketed by Tivo, Inc. are believed to be somewhatlimited to rendering whatever video stream is provided by the contentprovider on the user's television screen. In many cases, early so-calledinteractive TV devices are little more than conventional TV receiversonto which digital decoders and mass storage devices have been grafted.Moreover, such devices inherently provide (often by design) the contentprovider with a great deal of information concerning the user's viewinghabits and the nature of the information selected by the user. What isneeded, therefore, is to provide an improved an interactive TV devicethat affords the user with complete privacy in his or her choice ofcontent and the manner in which such content is viewed, processed andstored. What is also needed is an interactive TV device having a verylarge bandwidth and processing power, to enable it to receive andprocess multiple broadband input streams simultaneously. Also needed aredevices and systems to provide the user with the means for practical,reliable and high quality full motion videoconferencing for personal,e-commerce applications, gaming and entertainment purposes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention is an interactive device that isconfigured to display at least one selectively viewable pull out stripon a display. Each pull out strip may originate from a predetermined oneof the four sides of the display and may be configured to extend towardan opposite one of the four sides in response to user interaction. Eachpull out strip may display menu selections, icons and/or televisionchannel logos, for example.

According to further embodiments, the device may be configured todisplay four selectively viewable pull out strips on the display. Eachof the four selectively viewable pull out strips may originate from arespective one of the four sides of the display and may extend toward anopposite one of the four sides, responsive to user interaction. Each ofthe four pull out strips may be configured to be pulled out from one ofthe four sides of the display upon selection by an input device, each ofthe four pull out strips further being configured to be out of view whennot selected or in use. One or more of the pull out strips may bescrollable. One or more of the icons may include an image of a user, theselection of which invoking a user management general module that isconfigured to enable the creation, modification and deletion of a userand a user profile. The user profile may include one or more of thefollowing: a unique user identification number; a user logo, the userlogo including an image of the user; an identification of a lasttelevision channel selected by the user; a number of television channelsdefined for the user; a television channel table, the television channeltable including a list of television channels assigned to the user; apersonal password of the user; a default recording quality forrecordings made for the user, and an applications table for the user,the application table defining access rights for the user to theapplications loaded onto the interactive TV device and a location ofuser and application-specific data. The device may be further configuredto display incoming signals either in a full screen format or in aformat including up to four independent quarter screen segments on thedisplay. The four independent quarter screen segments may be configuredto display a web browser, an email client, and a videoconferencingsession and/or one or more television channels, for example.

The device may also include an input, the input being configured toaccept a plurality of input streams; an output, the output beingconfigured to selectively output a plurality of output streams; a firstdigital bus connected between the input and output, the first digitalbus being uninterrupted between the input and the output; an analog busconnected between the input and the output, the analog bus including avideo signal decoder coupled to the input and a video signal encodercoupled to the output, and a graphics processing assembly coupled to thefirst digital bus and to the analog bus. The device may be configured totreat all incoming video streams as a channel that is accessible to auser in a same manner as a television channel. Each selectively viewablepull(s) out strip may be configured to display communications-relatedinformation; television channels, and/or user and profile managementinformation and events management and device configuration relatedinformation, for example. Each pull out strip(s) may define a firstsection and a second section. The first section may be configured todisplay at least one of menu selections and icons and the second sectionmay be configured to display one or more television channel logos, forexample. Each selectively viewable pull out strip(s) may define, whenpulled out, an initially viewable zone and an initially hidden zone, theinitially viewable zone being at least initially viewable when the pullout strip may be pulled out, the initially hidden zone remaining hiddenfrom view until the pull out strip is scrolled. One or more of the pullout strips may be configured to display an icon representative of eachuser of the device, and each user representative icon may be configuredto enable, when selected, configuration of user preferences. The userrepresentative icon may, for example, include a photo of the user.

According to another embodiment thereof, the present invention is amethod for enabling user interaction with an interactive televisiondevice, comprising displaying at least one selectively viewable pull outstrip on a display, each of the at least one pull out strip originatingfrom a predetermined one of the four sides of the display and beingconfigured to extend toward an opposite one of the four sides inresponse to user interaction, each pull out strip displaying at leastone of user-selectable menu selections, icons and television channellogos.

The displaying step may be configured to display four selectivelyviewable pull out strips on the display, each of the four selectivelyviewable pull out strips originating from a respective one of the foursides of the display and extending toward an opposite one of the foursides. The displaying step may be carried out with each of the four pullout strips being configured to be pulled out from one of the four sidesof the display upon selection by an input device, each of the four pullout strips further being configured to be out of view when not selectedor in use. The displaying step may be carried out with at least one ofthe four pull out strips may be scrollable. One or more of the icons mayinclude an image of a user, the selection of which invoking a usermanagement general software module is be configured to enable thecreation, modification and deletion of a user and a user profile. Theuser profile may include one or more of the following: a unique useridentification number; a user logo, the user logo including an image ofthe user; an identification of a last television channel selected by theuser; a number of television channels defined for the user; a televisionchannel table, the television channel table including a list oftelevision channels assigned to the user; a personal password of theuser; a default recording quality for recordings made for the user, andan applications table for the user, the application table definingaccess rights for the user to the applications loaded onto theinteractive TV device and a location of user and application-specificdata. The method may also include a step of displaying incoming signalseither in a full screen format or in a format including up to fourindependent quarter screen segments on the display. The four independentquarter screen segments may be configured to display, for example, a webbrowser, an email client, and a videoconferencing session and/or one ormore television channels. The method may also include a step of handlingall incoming video streams as a channel that is accessible to a user inthe same manner as a television channel. The selectively viewable pullout strips may be configured to display at least one ofcommunications-related information; television channels, user andprofile management information and events management and deviceconfiguration related information. Each of the selectively viewable pullout strips may define a first section and a second section. The firstsection may be configured to display at least one of menu selections andicons, and the second section may be configured to display at least onetelevision channel logo, for example. Each of the selectively viewablepull out strips may define, when pulled out, an initially viewable zoneand an initially hidden zone, the initially viewable zone being at leastinitially viewable when the pull out strip may be pulled out, the methodfurther comprising a step of displaying the initially hidden zone whenthe pull out strip is scrolled. The method may also include a step ofdisplaying an icon representative of each user of the device on one ormore of the pull out strips, the user representative icon beingconfigured to enable, when selected, configuration of user preferences.The user representative icon may include, for example, a photo of theuser.

According to still another embodiment thereof, the present invention isa graphical user interface for helping a user to perform tasks insoftware. The graphical user interface may include at least oneselectively viewable pull out strip, each of the at least one pull outstrips being configured to originate from a predetermined one of thefour sides of a display and being configured to extend toward anopposite one of the four sides in response to user interaction, eachpull out strip displaying at least one of menu selections, icons andtelevision channel logos.

The graphical user interface may be configured to display fourselectively viewable pull out strips on the display, each of the fourselectively viewable pull out strips originating from a respective oneof the four sides of the display and extending toward an opposite one ofthe four sides. Each of the four pull out strips may be configured to bepulled out from one of the four sides of the display upon selection byan input device, each of the four pull out strips further beingconfigured to be out of view when not selected or in use. One or more ofthe four pull out strips may be scrollable. One or more of the icons mayinclude an image of a user, a selection of which invoking a usermanagement general software module is configured to enable the creation,modification and deletion of a user and a user profile. The user profilemay include one or more of the following: a unique user identificationnumber; a user logo, the user logo including an image of the user; anidentification of a last television channel selected by the user; anumber of television channels defined for the user; a television channeltable, the television channel table including a list of televisionchannels assigned to the user; a personal password of the user; adefault recording quality for recordings made for the user, and anapplications table for the user, the application table defining accessrights for the user to the applications and a location of user andapplication-specific data.

The graphical user interface may be further configured to displayincoming signals either in a full screen format or in a format includingup to four independent quarter screen segments on the display. The fourindependent quarter screen segments may be configured to display, forexample, a web browser, an email client, and a videoconferencing sessionand/or one or more television channels. One or more of the selectivelyviewable pull out strip may be configured to displaycommunications-related information; television channels and/or user andprofile management information and events management and deviceconfiguration related information, for example. Each of the selectivelyviewable pull out strips may define a first section and a secondsection. The first section may be configured to display at least one ofmenu selections and icons, and the second section may be configured todisplay at least one television channel logo. One or more of theselectively viewable pull out strips may define, when pulled out, aninitially viewable zone and an initially hidden zone, the initiallyviewable zone being at least initially viewable when the pull out stripmay be pulled out, the initially hidden zone remaining hidden from viewuntil displayed responsive to the pull out strip being scrolled. One ormore of the pull out strips may be configured to display an iconrepresentative of each user of the device, and each user representativeicon may be configured to enable, when selected, configuration of userpreferences. The user representative icon may include, for example, aphoto of the user.

The foregoing and other features of the invention may be described indetail below and set forth in the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a further understanding of the objects and advantages of the presentinvention, reference should be made to the following detaileddescription, taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the signal processing circuitry of aninteractive TV device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 represents an alternate view of a portion of the block diagram ofFIG. 1, to illustrate further aspects of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the signal processing circuitry of astandalone auto-tracking videoconferencing camera suitable for use aloneor in conjunction with the present interactive TV device, according to afurther embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a standalone auto-trackingvideoconferencing camera suitable for use alone or in conjunction withthe interactive TV device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the manner in which varioussources of information are presented to and acquired by the interactiveTV device of the present invention, among other aspects.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the video signal processing circuitry ananalog auto-tracking camera suitable for use in the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a videocomposite signal.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of the user interface of an interactive TVdevice, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a pull out strip, according to an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a pull out strip configured to manage usersand user profiles, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram showing the main elements of thecontrolling software of the present interactive TV device.

FIG. 12 is a functional block diagram of the “Home” application that isconfigured to manage many of the functions of the present interactive TVdevice, according to further aspects of the present invention.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a videoconference utilizing the presentinteractive TV device and/or the present auto-tracking videoconferencingcamera, according to the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the video signal processing circuitry 100of the interactive TV device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The present interactive TV device may best be thought of as amulti input data flow receiver. Indeed, the device signal processingcircuitry 100 includes functionality to perform as a Web browser, HF,cable and satellite TV receiver, a digital PVR, an interactive TVset-top box, an advanced central processing unit and a videoconferencingdevice, thanks to an integrated videoconferencing camera. According tothe present invention, all multimedia sources are treated and managedidentically, whether the input is a TV channel (such as CNN®, forexample) or a Web page (such as www.yahoo.com), etc. Moreover, thepresent interactive TV device also includes the ability to watch andrecord a plurality of MPEGx (Motion Pictures Expert Group) such as MPEG2or the emerging MPEG4 protocol) video streams simultaneously. Thepresent interactive TV device is designed with an architecture that isable to manage several data streams simultaneously. For example, theinformation input to the signal processing circuitry 100 (from whateversource) of the present interactive TV device may be displayed on fourindependently manageable quarter screen segments 802 a, 802 b, 802 c and802 d, such as shown in FIG. 8. The interactive TV device of the presentinvention, a physical embodiment of which is depicted in FIG. 5 atreference numeral 502, may be deployed in tandem with the standalonevideoconferencing camera 400 shown in FIG. 4 to create a flexible andpowerful multi-point real time, full motion and secure (when thegenerated video streams are encrypted) videoconferencing system.Alternatively several interactive TV devices 502 may be coupled across anetwork to enable two or more users to carry out a videoconference.

Returning now to FIG. 1, the signal processing circuitry 100 of theinteractive TV device includes a plurality of inputs, collectivelyreferenced by 102. These inputs may include a HF satellite input 104, aHF cable input 106, and analog tuner 108, an Audio/Visual input 110, amultiplexer (Mux) in return input 111, a Universal Serial Bus (USB)input 114, an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) input 116 and/orother broadband connection to a network (including, for example, theInternet), an Infrared input and/or a Blue Tooth compatible input 118 (acommunication and computing standard allowing high bandwidth, shortrange communications using a wireless connection; additional informationon this specification may be obtained from www.bluetooth.com), a DigitalVersatile Disk (DVD) input 120, an input for a video camera (such asshown at 504 in FIGS. 4 and 5) and an input for a waiting image 124 (awaiting image is an image that is displayed to the user while the systemstarts, such as “Please wait, system loading . . . ”), for example.Other inputs and/or devices configured to feed audio and/or videostreams into the circuitry 100 may also be interfaced with and/or addedto the input 102. Inputs 104-124 (and/or any other inputs that may bepresent at 102) may be multiplexed by input mux 126 onto one of threebuses 128, 138 and 150. Bus 128 is a digital bus configured to deliverdigital audio and video (AV) signals. For example, the bus 128 mayconform to the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard. DVB is astandard that utilizes the MPEG2 compression standard for transmissionof digital video and audio. Further information concerning the DVBstandard may be found at www.dvb.org. The digital bus 128 is preferablyprovided directly between the input mux 126 and the output mux 168, asshown. In effect, this digital AV bus 138 provides an uninterrupted pathfor a digital video stream from the input 102 to the output 109, tothereby provide the ability to render a video stream in full screen modewithout any degradation in picture quality (i.e., without degradation ofthe signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio). Indeed, as the video stream maytraverse the entire interactive TV device without perturbations (withoutneeding to propagate through an intervening device), the presentinteractive TV device is functionally invisible within the context offull screen viewing.

The present interactive TV device may also be provided with an analog AVbus, referenced as AV Bus 138. As shown, a video signal (from whateversource) may be multiplexed by mux 126 to the AV Bus 138, whereupon itmay be fed to one of a plurality of video decoders coupled to the analogAV bus 138, such as the video decoder 130. The video decoder 130 mayinclude a PAL, SECAM and/or NTCS decoder, for example. One currentimplementation of the signal processing circuitry 100 of the presentinteractive TV device utilizes the SAA7114 decoder manufactured byPhilips Semiconductors, Inc. The SAA7114 is a multistandard 9-bitdigital video decoder/scaler with a four-line comb filter. Othersuitable decoders may also be used, as those of skill will readilyrecognize. A plurality of HDTV, PAL, NTSC and/or SECAM video encodersmay also be provided on the AV Bus 138, as shown at 152, which videoencoders 152 are also coupled to the output multiplexer 168.

A third high speed bus such as the Command Bus (CB) 150 may be providedto interconnect various processing and storage elements with thedecoders 130 and the encoders 152, among other devices. Such a bus 150may include busses that conform to the Peripheral Component Interconnect(PCI) standard, the IC2 standard and/or some other bus architecture. Abridge 140 may interconnect each of the video encoders 152 and the bus150, while bridge 158 may interconnect each of the video encoders 152and the bus 150. A number of devices may be connected to the bus 150,such as one or more disk storage devices 166 (such as an IntegratedDevice Electronics (IDE) magnetic disk drive or drives, for example)and/or other devices such as a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) such asthe Texas Instruments TMS320 line of DSPs, for example. Memory 164, suchas Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM) may also becoupled to the bus 150. For example, the circuitry 100 may include 512Mb (or more) of DRAM memory. The disk storage 166 may include, forexample, 100 Gbytes of storage space, enabling between about 100 and 300hours of video recording, depending upon the quality of recording. Theinteractive TV device, moreover, may include appropriate connectors toenable the user to connect external storage devices (whether magnetic oroptical, for example), for virtually unlimited space.

Preferably, the compression and decompression of video streams into andfrom the MPEGx standard is carried out in hardware, thereby enabling amore efficient use of processor resources and encoding and decodingfunctions that are independent of the current processing load on theinternal processor 146 of the circuitry 100. Toward that end, a graphicsprocessing assembly 190 is preferably coupled at least to the AV Bus 138and to the digital AV bus 138. The graphics processing assembly 190 mayinclude a first graphics engine 192 and a second graphics engine 148.The first graphics engine 192 may include, for example, one or more(MPEGx, for example, where x=1, 2 or 4) video encoders 144 coupled to aCentral Processing Unit (CPU) 146, which CPU 146 is coupled to one ormore (MPEGx, for example) video decoders 154. For example, the videoencoder(s) 144 may incorporate a single-chip solution, such as theCXD1922Q MPEG2 encoder manufactured by Sony Corp., for example. The CPU146 may be a Pentium class processor (such as a Pentium III or higher),as manufactured by Intel Corporation, for example. The second graphicsengine 148 may be closely coupled to the bus 150. A currentimplementation of the second graphics engine 148 includes the SIS630Chipset from Silicon Integrated Systems Corporation, which includes,among other features, a 2-D and 3-D graphics accelerator, an IDEcontroller, a bridge to the bus 150, a DVD accelerator and support for avariety of video streams and display devices. A video controller 156 maybe coupled to the bus 150 and to the output mux 168. The videocontroller 156 is also preferably coupled to the CPU 146 via a bus thatis optimized to handle graphics and/or video streams, such as a busconforming to the AGP specification, for example (AGP, or AdvancedGraphics Port, is an interface specification introduced by IntelCorporation to speed up the rendering of complex 3-D computer graphics).The video controller 156 may be selected from among the VGA controllersmanufactured by nVidia Corporation, for example. The video controller156 may take any video and/or graphics signal presented to the outputmultiplexer 168 and deliver it to the Command Bus 150, where is may beprocessed and/or stored, such as on the disk storage 166.

A “watchdog” processor 134 may be coupled between the AV bus 138 and theCommand bus 150. Coupled between the watchdog processor 134 and the AVBus 138 is a bus interface 132, which performs all required operationsto enable the watchdog processor to access and control the video signalon the AV Bus 138. Similarly, coupled between the watchdog processor 134and the Command Bus 150 is another bus interface 136, which provides allof the bidirectional bus translator functions necessary for the watchdogprocessor 134 to access and control the video signal flow on the CommandBus 150, and to enable the watchdog processor 134 to access the memory164 and/or the disk storage 166. For example, the bus interface 136 mayinclude, for example, the EC210 PCI Bus Master/Target devicemanufactured by Altera Corporation. The watchdog processor 134 ispreferably independent of either the CPU 146 or the DSP 162. Theprincipal function of the watchdog processor 134 is to monitor the stateof the present interactive TV device. In particular, the watchdogprocessor 134, under the control of the watchdog general module 1104(see FIG. 11) may be configured and programmed to monitor and insure theproper functioning of the present interactive TV device. For example,the watchdog processor 134 may monitor the internal temperature of thedevice (to optimize the operation of internal fans to conserve energyand reduce the device acoustics, among other reasons) and/or otherinternal parameters, may detect and manage operating modes (sleep,and/or wake up operating modes, for example), may detect the presence ofdevices and/or signals, and may monitor the camera (see reference 504 inFIGS. 4 and 5) integrated within the present interactive TV device. Thewatchdog processor 134 may also carry out control functions such asinsuring the continued confidentiality of user passwords, managing userprofiles, verifying the authenticity and integrity of installed andcurrently running programs and provide verification of all devicescoupled to the present interactive TV device. The watchdog processor 134may also perform calculations relative to and monitor the load presenton the internal buses within the circuitry 100 (such as the AV Bus 138and the Command bus 150, for example). The watchdog processor 134 mayalso generate alarms, in cooperation with various applications, when oneof the buses 138 or 150 becomes overloaded. Moreover, the watchdogprocessor 134 may be configured to discharge or otherwise interrupt avideo signal that overloads a given bus. For example, the watchdogprocessor 134 may exert control over the Command Bus 150. Otherfunctions of the watchdog processor 134 include monitoring the integrityof the operating system and to re-load the operating system of thepresent interactive TV device (such as the Linux operating system, forexample) from the network 510 (see FIG. 5) or directly from a datacarrier such as a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM while maintaining user-relatedparameters.

At least the DVB Bus 128, the output of the encoder(s) 152, the bus 150and the video controller 156, as shown in FIG. 1, may be coupled to anoutput mux 168 that is configured to selectively route the signals onthe aforementioned buses to a number of outputs collectively shown at109. The outputs 109 shown in FIG. 1 are but a representative few of thepossible outputs of the interactive TV device according to the presentinvention. These outputs 109 may include a plurality of independent TVoutputs 112 (such as four independent TV outputs, for example), a Y/Cvideo out 114 (Y being luminance and C being chrominance—also calledS-video), a SCART (Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radio et T▪1▪vision), used for combined audio and video connections—also known asEuroconnector) output 116, a MUX in return 11, a Universal Serial Bus(USB, IEEE1394) output, an ADSL output 182, an IR I2C compatible output(a two-wire serial bus licensed by Royal Philips Electronics), a DVD-RAMor DVD-Recordable output 186 and, for example, a Modem (such as a 56Kmodem, for example). Other outputs may be provided to in addition to (orsubstituted for) the outputs 109 shown in FIG. 1, as those of skill mayrecognize.

The shaded elements of the block diagram of FIG. 1 may be configured tobe modular and removable, and may be includes as part of a removabledrawer configured to fit within the present interactive TV device. Otherand/or additional electronic modules may be incorporated in theremovable drawer, to provide the user with the ability to customizeand/or upgrade the capabilities of the present interactive TV device.The removable drawer enables the electrical coupling of selected ones ofthe electronic modules to the command bus 150, the analog bus 138 and/orthe digital bus 128. Such modularity enables the present interactive TVdevice to resist obsolescence by adapting and incorporating to newtechnologies as they become available.

FIG. 2 represents an alternate view of a portion of the block diagram ofFIG. 1, to illustrate the manner in which the interactive TV device ofthe present invention treats an IP connection in a manner that issimilar to a television channel—that is, every http address may be seenand treated as a television channel. As shown therein, an Internet (IP)connection 202 is processed by the CPU 146 (and rendered on a displayvia a Web browser, for example). The output of the CPU 146 may besimultaneously fed to the video controller 156 (a VGA video controller,for example) and to the second graphics engine 148 (such as thepreviously mentioned SIS630, for example). Both the second graphicsengine 148 and the video controller 156 may be coupled to video memory206 and 204, respectively. The video memories 206 and 204 are not shownin FIG. 1. The stream originating from the Internet connection 202 maybe processed by, for example, the second graphics engine 148, output tothe output multiplexer 168, fed back to the input multiplexer 126 viathe MUX in return 118 and the output MUX 168 and thereafter loaded ontothe AV Bus (for example) and processed in the same manner (such as a TVsignal) as any other input to the interactive TV device. The presentinvention, in this manner, may treat all internal data flows as a videoor television channel and may be configured to render all such dataflows (irrespective of the content, source or format thereof) as a videochannel on the display(s) 508, such as shown in FIG. 5.

By providing digital buses 128 (which is uninterrupted from the input tothe output of the device) and 150 and one analog bus 138 and twoseparate and independent processors 146 and 148, a large amount of datamay be processed and displayed simultaneously. By providing such highbandwidth and such robust processing power, many of the functionalitiesonce relegated to the content provider may now be carried out internallyto the present interactive TV device. For example, the user's choice ofprogramming may now be transparent to the content provider, as thepresent interactive TV device may simultaneously receive a great deal ofinformation (i.e., multiple data streams) from which the user may selecthis or her choice of programming and/or content. In effect, the user'schoice of content need not influence what content is actually input intothe present interactive TV device, thereby insuring the user's privacy.The user, in this manner, may view any content accessed by the devicewithout necessarily informing the content provider of what and when thecontent is viewed. Moreover, all of the channel settings, devicesettings, user information and user profiles and preferences may remainconfidential and internal to the present interactive TV device and neednot be transmitted to an external server for further storage,processing, data mining and possible unwanted targeted marketing.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the video signal processing circuitry 300of the auto-tracking videoconferencing camera such as shown at 400 inFIG. 4, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As showntherein, the signal processing circuitry 300 of the presentauto-tracking videoconferencing camera 400 is similar to that of thepresent interactive TV device, in that it is based upon a digital audiovideo bus (DVB) 306 (uninterrupted between the input 302 and the output304 of the camera by way of input and output multiplexers 354, 356, ananalog audio video bus (AVB) 308 and a command bus 310, such as, forexample, a PCI bus. According to the present invention, the AV Bus 308enables the transport and routing of analog audio and/or video streamsfrom analog sources at the input 302 to analog outputs at the output304. The DVB bus 306 enables the transport and routing of digital audioand/or video streams from digital sources at the input 302 to digitaloutputs at the output 304. The CB bus 310 is the camera's internal bus,handing I/O operations, for example, to the different elements coupledthereto such as, for example, memory 350, DSP 348 and/or disk storage352 (via an IDE bus, for example). The CB bus 310 may include a PCI bus,an I2C bus, an IDE bus, a USB bus and/or and IEEE 1394 bus, to name afew illustrative (but not limiting) examples. The analog bus 308 mayinclude one or more video decoder and encoder combinations, as shown at328 and 330. For example, the decoder(s) 328 may include a PAL/NTSCand/or SECAM decoder(s), whereas the encoder(s) 330 may likewise includea PAL/NTSC and/or SECAM encoder(s), to provide an encoded video streamto the output mux 356. An MPEGx (where x=2 or 4, for example) encodertakes the decoded output of decoder 328 or the digital video streamtransported on the digital AV bus 308 and generates an MPEGx encodedoutput to a CPU 336, which may be or include a Pentium-class processor,for example. The CPU 336 may also be coupled to one or more MPEGxdecoders, which may also be coupled to the analog and digital buses 308,306. The output of the CPU 336 may also be provided to the Command Bus310. Both the decoder(s) 328 and the encoder(s) 330 may also be coupledto the Command Bus 310. A Main Input/Output control processor 340,together with AVB Scan 344 monitor and regulate the traffic on the threebuses 306, 308 and 310. Indeed, the AVB Scan 344 functions as anautomatic traffic regulator by informing the Main I/O control processor340 of the current bandwidth transported on each of the busses 306, 308and 310, thereby enabling the Main I/O control processor 340 to balancethe bandwidths on each of the busses 306, 308 and 310. An analog todigital converter 338 takes the decoded analog output of the decoder 328and feeds it to the Main I/O Control processor 340. Similarly, theoutput of the main I/O control processor 340 may be converted to digitalform by the analog to digital converter 342 and output onto the CommandBus 310. The CPU 336 may also be coupled to the main I/O controlprocessor 340. The output multiplexer 356 may be directly coupled to theinput mux 354 by Mux Return Path 374. The input 302, according to thepresent invention, may include the output of a camera CCD 312, an ADSLinput 314 (and/or other broadband network connection), an IR(conforming, for example, to the IrDA protocol set out a www.irda.org)and/or Blue Tooth input 316 (and/or an output supporting an equivalentwireless short or long range communication protocol) and/or an externalpower jack 318. An internal source of power (such as internal lithiumbatteries 346) may also be provided. An auto-tracking analog controller600 (as shown in FIG. 6), an I/O port 322, an IR Scanner 324 and an IRtag input 326 may also be present at the input of the circuit. Otherinputs may be added and/or substituted to the present invention,without, however, departing from the scope of the present invention, asthose of skill in this art may realize. The output 304 may include oneor more HF TV outputs 358, one or more Y/C (S-Video) outputs 360 one ormore HF data outputs 362 (coupled through the CB Bus 310, for example),and ADSL (and/or other broadband network connection), an IR output 366,a modem (such as a 56K modem, for example) 368 and a BlueTooth-compatible output 370 (and/or an output supporting an equivalentwireless short or long range communication protocol). The shadedelements 320, 322, 324, 326, 358, 360 and/or 362 may be made removableand disposed, for example, in one or more of the rings 408 shown in FIG.4). This enables the video processing circuitry 300 to be readilyupdated with removable elements that couple with the three internalbuses 306, 308 and/or 310.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a standalone auto-trackingvideoconferencing camera 400 suitable for use in conjunction with theinteractive TV device 502 of the present invention. The ornamentalfeatures of the videoconferencing camera 400 are disclosed in commonlyassigned and co-pending U.S. design patent application Ser. No.29/132,500 and entitled “Videoconferencing Tracking Camera” filed onNov. 9, 2000, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in itsentirety. The auto-tracking camera 400, according to the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 4, includes a base 402 (shown as circular in FIG.4), onto which one or more rings 408 may be stacked (one such ring beingshown in FIG. 4). The base 402 may include a connector 410 for power,video signal and/or control signals (such as the signals shown at 624,626, 640 and 642 in FIG. 6). The ring or rings 408 may discharge variousfunctions. For example, one ring 408 may include a battery to providefor up to three hours (for example) of autonomy for the standalonecamera 400. Another ring 408 may include a controller coupled to anelectric motor for rotating the base 402 of the camera 400 along theX-axis 404. A third ring 408 may include HF communication means andmeans for processing an analog and/or digital video stream, as detailedrelative to FIG. 3. Additional rings 408 may be provided to support, forexample, the Blue Tooth short range wireless specification. Suchadditional rings 408 may also support ADSL, may include a processor(from Intel Corporation, for example) to run a multipointvideoconferencing application under, for example, the Linux operatingsystem. Over the ring(s) 408, the body portion 412 may incorporate aninfrared (IR) sensor 416 and various (internal or external) antennas toenable the various modes of communication. The body portion 412 supportsa head 418 that includes the optics of the camera 504, motors for movingthe camera 504 along the X and Y-axes 404, 406 and stereo microphones414. The optics (manufactured by Canon, for example), according to anembodiment of the videoconferencing camera 400, may advantageously beconfigured with auto focus, zoom (a 4:1 zoom, for example) and diaphragmfunctionalities that enable the videoconferencing camera 400 to selectand center a target such as a person within a rectangular space of 1 m²from a distance of 1 meter or to center a person in a rectangular spaceof 1.5 m² from a distance of 5 meters. The videoconferencing camera 504includes circuitry for creating an analog video stream and/or a digitalvideo stream (audio+video), as detailed relative to the block diagram ofFIG. 3. Preferably, a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) imaging device withinthe camera 504 operates at less than 2 Lux to generate a High DefinitionTV-quality video stream.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a system 500 for interactivetelevision and the manner in which various sources of information arepresented to and acquired by the interactive TV device 502 of thepresent invention. As shown therein, the system 500 includes theinteractive TV device 502 coupled to a television or display 508. Akeyboard 518 may be removably coupled to the present interactive TVdevice 502, as may be a pointing or input device, such as mouse 520. Theornamental features of the interactive television device 502 are furtherdisclosed in commonly assigned and co-pending U.S. design patentapplication No. 29/132,949 entitled “Set-Top Box with Embedded TrackingVideo Camera” filed on Nov. 16, 2000, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The interactive TVdevice 502 may include an integrated disk reader and/or recorder 516,such as a CD-ROM or DVD player/recorder (such as, for example, a DVD-R,DVD-RW or DVD-RAM, for example), as well as a smart card reader 526and/or a magnetic card reader 524 to enable users to insert and/or swipecredit, charge or debit cards within the device 502 to purchase goodsand services online. The interactive TV device 502 may also include anintegrated camera 504, which is able to pan along both the X axis 404and the Y axis 406 and to automatically track a target such as a speakerwithout resorting to analog to digital (A/D) and digital to analog (D/A)conversions and digital processing techniques, as explained relative toFIGS. 6 and 7. The device 502 may also include one or more microphones,such as shown at 522. To insure privacy when videoconferencing is notdesired, a cover 506 may be fitted over the front face of theinteractive TV device 502 to physically obscure the field of view of thecamera 504 by placing a physical opaque barrier over the optics of thecamera 504. A similar cover may be configured to fit over the optics ofthe standalone video camera 400 of FIG. 4.

According to the present invention, the interactive TV device 502 mayalso be coupled, via a network 510, to one or more servers 512. Theserver 512, in turn, may be coupled to a database 514. The database 514may store information as to the availability of communications services,content providers and the like. Specifically, the database 514 mayinclude records for Internet Service Providers (ISP), cable televisionproviders, satellite broadcast providers and records of all contentproviders that may be accessible and usable to the interactive TV device502. According to one embodiment of the present invention, theinteractive TV, upon initialization or periodically, may query thedatabase 514 to determine what services are available to it and reportto the user. Such a query (carried out by the localization generalmodule 1102 shown at in FIG. 11) may provide the server 512 with thetelephone area code of the location in which the interactive TV device502 is deployed, whereupon the server 512 may retrieve the records ofall service providers that provide services within that area code andreturn the information to the interactive TV device 502 to be displayedon the television or display 508 for the user. The user may then pickand choose which services he or she wishes to access or subscribe to.Alternatively, the interactive TV device 502 may provide the server 512with the current time of day and the time zone of the location in whichthe device 502 is deployed. Alternatively still, other localizationindicium or indicia may be provided to the server 512 to enable theserver to appropriately formulate a query (such as a Structured QueryLanguage (SQL) query, for example) to the database 514 to retrievetherefrom a list of available services. The interactive TV device 502may also receive positioning signals (for example, from the GlobalPositioning Satellite (GPS) or GLONASS systems, for example) to fix itsgeographical coordinates, for example, to pinpoint its geographiclocation without any input form the user. This localization may becarried out completely anonymously or with a selectable degree ofanonymity. The network 510 may include the Internet, a dedicatedbroadband connection, satellite and/or cable, ADSL or most any othercommunication channel between the device 502 and the server 512.

As is known, a video frame is composed of a series of successive scanlines that start at the top of the picture frame, after the generationof a frame pulse. The frame pulse enables the synchronization of theoffset of the scan lines from the top to the bottom of the pictureframe, to precisely interlace two scanning fields of such scan lines.Each line starts from the left hand side of the picture frame after thetop line signal. Each line is traced between 50 and 65 μs and a framelasts between 16 to 20 ms, depending upon the prevailing video standard.FIG. 7 illustrates a videocomposite signal. The initial negative pulse(shown in FIG. 7 as a 0.3 V amplitude square wave) represents the linesynchronization that is immediately followed by a blank level and ablack level. It is from this black reference level that any rise involtage corresponds to a lighter image until a maximum white level isreached. Frequency bursts are then superimposed upon this luminancesignal to deliver the chrominance information of the videocompositesignal.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of an auto-tracking analog controller 600suitable for controlling the camera of the interactive TV box of thepresent invention. The controller 600 enables the camera toautomatically track and remain centered on a target (such as a person ora speaker in a conference room or a person in his or her living roomwatching TV) within a room along both the horizontal (X) and verticalaxes (Y). According to the present invention, the camera 504 may beinitially and grossly pointed to the target (e.g., person) by locating aselected and coded infrared signal emitted by an electronic badge or tag(shown in FIG. 13 at reference 1310) carried on the person. Theelectronic badge 1310 may include a selectively activated infraredtransmitter configured to generate an IR signal that may be received bythe IR sensor 416 or by an IR sensor on the interactive TV device 502.Both the interactive TV device 502 and the electronic badge may alsoinclude one or more microphones. Thereafter, the auto-trackingcontroller 600 of FIG. 6 will keep the person centered within the fieldof view of the camera 504. Alternatively, the gross framing of theperson using the electronic badge 1310 may be omitted.

The input signal 602 represents a videocomposite signal, as shown inFIG. 7. As the analog auto-tracking system of the present invention doesnot use the chrominance information, it may be filtered out, as shown at604. The lines and a frames signals may then be separated by the synchroseparator 606 and fed to separate outputs, labeled lines 608 and frames160. It is the lines and frames signals 608, 610 that control thedisplacement of the camera 504 of the interactive TV device and of thecamera 504 of the standalone analog auto-tracking camera 400 of thepresent invention, together with the videocomposite signal 602. As shownin FIG. 6, the auto-tracking analog controller 600 includes a horizontaldisplacement controller 612 that generates a move left signal 624 and amove right signal 626 and a vertical displacement controller 628 thatgenerates a move up signal 640 and a move down signal 642. Together, themove left signal 624, the move right signal 626, the move up signal 640and the move down signal 642 fully control the displacement of thecamera 504 of the interactive TV device and of the standaloneauto-tracking camera 400 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6,the inputs to the horizontal displacement controller 612 include thevideo in signal 602 and the lines signal 608. The lines signal 608 maybe input into a current position counter 614, which counts the lines ofthe video signal 602. The video in signal 602 may be input into anoutline analyzer 618. An outline (of a speaker, for example) may bedetermined, according to the present invention, by a transition in theamplitude of the luminance signal. This outline may be extracted fromthe video in signal 602 by an analysis of the derivative of theluminance signal. To avoid errors in the outline analyses due to, forexample, an alternating high contrast pattern on the speaker's clothing,the output of the outline analyzer 618 may be fed into a correlator 616,which calculates the total energy of the signal and the position of thespeaker by correlation. The output of the correlator 616 may also beinput to the position counter 664, which assigns a number to the currentposition of the speaker. The output of the current position counter 614may also be latched into the position-1 module, which may be configuredto store a value representative of the previous position of the speaker.Indeed, as the target person moves, the output of the current positioncounter 614 is a value that corresponds to the speaker's currentposition, whereas the position-1 module 620 holds a value representativeof the target person's previous position. By comparing the value withinthe position counter 664 with the value stored within the position-1module 620 in a comparator 622, it is possible to generate move left andmove right signals 624, 626 to control the movement of the camera 504along the X-axis. Indeed, the camera 504 may be controlled to move tothe left if the value representative of the previous position is greaterthan the value representative of the current position of the targetperson. Similarly, the camera 504 may be controlled to move to the rightif the value representative of the previous position is less than thevalue representative of the current position of the target person.

The lines pulses 608 initialize the position analysis at the top leftcorner of the picture frame (the position of the scanning spot after theblanking interval). Each scan line of a frame may then be tested todetermine the degree to which the target person may have moved in thehorizontal direction. The test includes a determination of the outlineof the target person from the envelope of the luminance signalcorresponding to the person. Once the outline of the person has beendetermined, it is only necessary then to determine its offset relativeto the line synchronization pulse to calculate the direction of thedisplacement of the person. Indeed, if the offset between the topsynchronization pulse and the beginning of the outline of the person isgetting smaller, the person is moving toward the left and the move leftoutput signal 624 may be asserted. In contrast, if the offset betweenthe top synchronization pulse and the beginning of the person is gettinglarger, the speaker is moving toward the right side of the picture frameand the move right output signal 626 may be asserted. These signals 624,626 may be fed to the camera motor control system in real time to closethe control loop and cause the camera 504 to follow the target person ashe or she moves left or right.

Turning now to vertical control, the frames signal 610 and the video insignal 602 are input to the vertical displacement controller 628, whichhas a structure that is similar to that of the horizontal displacementcontroller 612. The vertical displacement controller 628 outputs themove up signal 640 and the move down signal 642, which signals are thenfed in real time to the camera motor control system to close the controlloop and cause the camera 504 to follow the target person as he or shemoves up or down. Indeed, if the offset between the top frame and thebeginning of the outline as determined by the outline analyzer 634 andthe correlator 632 diminishes, the person is moving up and if the offsetincreases, the person is moving down. This offset is determined by thedifference between the current and the previous position of the person,as fed to the comparator 638 by the current position counter 630 and theposition-1 module 636.

FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of the user interface of an interactive TVdevice, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As showntherein, the display 802 of a television (or other display) 508 may beused in full screen mode or may be used in a configuration that includesone or more quarter screen segments 802 a, 802 b, 802 c and 802 d, asshown. Each of the quarter screen segments 802 a, 802 b, 803 c or 803 dmay display, for example, any combination of TV channels through one ormore of the four independent television tuners (see reference numerals112 in FIG. 1) of the interactive TV device of the present invention.Alternatively, the four quarter screen segments 802 a, 802 b, 803 c and803 d may simultaneously display a combination of differently formattedvideo streams from a variety of providers. As shown in the illustrativeexample of FIG. 8, one of the quarter screens segments 802 a, 802 b, 803c and 803 d may show a letterboxed movie as shown at 802 b, anotherquarter screen 802 b may display a videoconference between users of likeinteractive TV devices and/or standalone auto-tracking videoconferencingcameras 400 (as shown in FIGS. 4 and 13) as suggested by 802 b, anotherquarter screen may display a broadcast TV channel such as shown at 802 c(a weather channel, for example) while yet another quarter screen maydisplay a fully functional Web browser and a Web site rendered by abrowser application loaded onto the device 502, as shown at 802 d.

The user interface of the interactive TV device of the present inventionprovides for a pull out strip 804, 806, 808 and 810 along each side ofthe display 802. Such pull out strips may be normally invisible to theuser during normal viewing. However, when pulled out by a pointingdevice (such as mouse 520 shown in FIG. 5) or another input device(including the user's voice, for example), the pull out strips 804, 806,808 and 810 extend toward the opposite side of the display 802 fromwhich they emerged to allow the user to fully control and program theoperation of the present interactive TV device 502. The pull out strips804, 806, 808 and 810 are shown in the configuration of FIG. 8 only toavoid obscuring the display 806 with overlapping strips. The pull outstrips 804, 806, 808 and 810 may each include a plurality of icons 812,represented in FIG. 8 by the constituent squares making up each of thepull out strips 804, 806, 808 and 810. Each of the icons 812, whenclicked on by a pointing device 520 or selected by some other inputdevice (including voice) may launch some application, provide the userwith further choices and/or carry out some predetermined action orfunction. The icons 812 may be grouped according to functionalcategories. That is, icons 812 in each of the pull out strips 804, 806,808 and 810 may be functionally related. As shown in FIG. 8, the pullout strip 804 may reveal icons and/or information related tocommunications, the pull out strip 806 may reveal icons and/orinformation related to events management (recording of televised events,for example) and configuration and current state of the interactive TVdevice 502, pull out strip 808 may reveal icons and/or informationrelated to user and profile management functions (creation,modification, deletion of users and user profiles and the access rightsassociated therewith) and pull out strip 810 may reveal icons and/orinformation related to available channels, including broadcast TV, cableTV, satellite TV and/or Web (Internet) channels, for example), resource(e.g., DVD) channel, camera channels or any video stream—from anauxiliary input, for example. Other functional assignments anddistributions to the pull out strips 804, 806, 808 and 810 may be made,as those of skill in this art will readily recognize. The pull outstrips 804, 806, 808 and 810 may be programmable, configurable andcustomizable. Not all pull out strips 804, 806, 808 and 810 need revealthe same number of icons, nor must all icons be of the same size. Someicons may include logos, such as the logos of corporate broadcasters orpersonalized logos of users of the present invention (see, for example,FIGS. 9 and 10). When selecting a pull out strip 804, 806, 808 or 810,the user may cause at least a portion of the display 802 to be at leastpartially obscured until the pull out strip 804, 806, 808 or 810 isreleased and collapses into the side of the display 802 or otherwisedisappears from the display 802 and the user's view.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a pull out strip, according to an embodimentof the present invention. Such a pull out strip, as shown in FIG. 9, maybe configured as above-mentioned pull out strip 810, and may revealicons and/or information related to available channels (broadcast TV,cable TV, satellite TV, Web (Internet) channels, resource (e.g., DVD)channel, camera channels or any video stream—from an auxiliary input,for example). As shown the pull out strip may be divided into a firstsection 902 and a second section 904. As shown, the section 902 mayinclude icons, such as shown at 910, 912 or 914. These icons may beselected to configure the present interactive TV device or to otherwisecarry out some predefined function. For example, the icon 910 may beselected by the user to adjust the volume, icon 912 to mute the volumeand icon 914 may cause playback to resume at a point that is 30 minutesbackward in time from the point in the playback. Other icons may berelated to the position of icons and/or logos on the pull out strip,blanking the display (for privacy, for example), adjusting the displaycharacteristics and/or locking a display and/or channel, for example.The second section 904 may include a plurality of logos 908. Each logomay be selected by the user and may cause the display of the currentprogram on the corresponding TV channel. The user may personalize logosand/or create entirely new logos for existing channels and/or services.According to an embodiment of the present invention, the pull out stripsmay include a zone that is visible when the strip is pulled out and aninitially hidden zone 906 that is made visible when the user scrolls thestrip. In this manner, an unlimited number of icons and/or logos may berepresented in any of the pull out strips 804, 806, 808 or 810.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a pull out strip configured to manage usersand user profiles, according to an embodiment of the present invention.Such a pull out strip may reveal icons and/or information related touser and profile management functions (creation, modification, deletionof users and user profiles and the access rights associated therewith),as discussed relative to pull out strip 808 above. Such a pull out strip808 may include one or more icon sections 1002, 1016 and 1032 and one ormore logo sections 1040. Logos 1042 through 1050 show a picture of theusers currently configured on the present interactive TV device. Eachsuch user may log onto the present interactive TV device andindividually define the configuration for the present interactive TVdevice (although choices may be deliberately restricted for some users,such as minors). This enables each user to personalize the device totheir own liking and to enable parents to control the actions that theirchildren (such as represented by logos 1048 and 1050) may take. Forexample, parents 1042 and/or 1044 may lock out certain features of thedevice to their children 1048, 1050 (such as the videoconferencingfeature, for example) and/or lock out certain channels.

The icon 1004 of the icon section 1002 enables the currently logged onuser to define their preferred security options, icon 1006 enables thecurrently logged on user to configure their IP connection, icon 1008enables the user to configure broadcast and/or satellite TV channels,icon 1010 enables the user to set basic configuration features of thepresent device, icon 1012 enables the user to set advanced configurationfeatures and icon 1014 enables the presently logged on user to edittheir user profile. Icon section 1016 includes an icon 1018 forconfiguring e-mail, an icon 1020 for configuring the videoconferencingsettings, icon 1022 for configuring chat settings, an icon 1024 forconfiguring the removable drawer (see FIG. 1 hatched items), an icon1026 for configuring the states of the present interactive TV device, anicon 1028 for network configuration settings, and an icon 1030 forconfiguring applications running and/or loaded on the presentinteractive TV device. Another icon section 1032 may include avalidation icon 1034, a delete icon 1036 and a new user icon 1038. Theabove-described icons are only exemplary in nature and those of skill inthis art will realize that other icons or means of invoking theassociated actions and/or functions are possible within the context ofthe present invention. A colored strip 1308 may be used to indicate tothe user whether the various settings addressed by the icons areproperly configured. The colored strip 1308 may, for example, be coloredgreen if the settings are properly configured and may be colored red ifone or more of the settings are not properly configured. Alternatively,the color of the strip 1308 may indicate whether horizontal scrolling isavailable in icon section 1016 (e.g., to reveal additional icons).Indeed, if the strip 1308 is a neutral color, no horizontal scrollingmay be available (e.g., all icons are displayed in the icon section 1016without the need to scroll), if the strip 1308 is green, left horizontalscrolling may be available to reveal other icons and if the strip 1308is red, no further left horizontal scrolling may be available.

By utilizing pull out strips, icons, logos, colored strips and scrollingsuch as described relative to FIGS. 8, 9 and 10, a very intuitive,functional and compact user interface is created that may be controlledwith a user-operated remote control unit that is provided with as few asthree buttons and/or a trackball. A suitable remote control for thepresent invention is disclosed in commonly assigned and co-pending U.S.Design patent application Ser. No. 29/141,046 filed on Apr. 27, 2001 andentitled “Remote Control”, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein in its entirety.

Software Architecture

The present interactive TV device may be controlled by software that ispreferably modular in design, in that the functions of the device arecontrolled by a plurality of software modules that may be dependent uponone another or independent of other modules. The control software may beloosely categorized in two groups; namely a first group that includesgeneral modules and a second group that includes applications, of whichthe “Home” application is detailed below. The general modules arepreferably independent of the applications, but provide for therequirements of existing and future applications, as well as therequirements of future hardware devices. The general modules arepreferably designed so as to maximize the re-use thereof under an opensource operating system, such as Linux. As shown in FIG. 11, the generalmodules include the localization general module 1102, the watchdoggeneral module 1104, the application loader general module 1106, thelogo management general module 1108, the user management general module1110 and the channel configuration general module 1112.

Localization General Module

As detailed relative to FIG. 5, the localization general module 1102enables the present interactive TV device to localize itselfgeographically (and, by extension, within the landscape of locallyavailable service and content providers). This may be carried out bysupplying some information such as telephone area code, time of day andtime zone and the like to a server, such as shown at 512 in FIG. 5. Theserver 512 may then query a database or databases 514 to obtaintherefrom information related to all locally available services andcontent providers, which may then supplied to the present interactive TVdevice to initialize local values such as, for example, the URL of therelevant TV program listing server.

Watchdog General Module

The watchdog general module 1104 may be loaded onto the watchdogprocessor (shown at reference 134 in FIG. 1) to continually monitor theproper functioning and integrity of the present interactive TV device.The watchdog general module 1104 may be configured to monitor some orall of the internal electronics and to signal any malfunction. Thewatchdog general module 1104 may also be configured to monitor and theintegrity of the installed software and to re-generate, if necessary anysoftware from an installation data carrier (e.g., CD ROM or DVD) whileconserving any existing parameters (user parameters and profiles, logos,channel parameters, etc.). This module 1104 may also monitor theinternal temperature of the interactive TV device (to optimize theoperation of internal fans to conserve energy and reduce the deviceacoustics, among other reasons) and internal parameters, to detect andmanage operating modes (sleep, and/or wake up operating modes, forexample), to detect the presence of devices and/or signals, and tomanage the camera 504 integrated within the present interactive TVdevice. The watchdog general module 1104 may also carry out controlfunctions, to insure the continued confidentiality of user passwords andmanage user profiles, for example. The watchdog general module 1104 mayalso monitor the load present on the internals buses within theinteractive TV device (such as the AV Bus 138 and the Command bus 150shown in FIG. 1, for example). The watchdog general module 1104 may alsogenerate alarms, in cooperation with various applications, when one ofthe buses 138, 150 becomes overloaded. Moreover, the watchdog generalmodule 1104 and the processor 134 may discharge or otherwise interrupt avideo signal that overloads a given bus.

Application Loader General Module

The application loader general module 1106 may be configured to loadapplications or other software modules onto the present interactive TVdevice by installing the application or software module from a localdata carrier (such as a DVD loaded into the integrated disk readerand/or recorder 516—see FIG. 5) and/or by downloading the application orsoftware module from a server coupled to a network (such as shown at 510in FIG. 5). The loading of an application or software module may becarried out in two phases. The first phase may include the loading andinstallation proper of the application or software module and the secondphase may include a configuration and parameterization of the installedapplication and/or software module from the system data structures,discussed hereunder.

Logo Management General Module

The logo management general module 1108 enables the clipping of a logofrom a Web site, the creation of an altogether new logo as well as themodification or deletion of an existing logo. This module, therefore,allows different users to create their own personal set of logos and tocreate their own personalized logos. Upon the creation of a new ormodified logo, the logo management general module 1108 may automaticallyformat the new or modified logo for use by the different applications.The logos may be stored as small graphic files and stored in a standardgraphic format, such as the bitmapped GIF format. FIG. 9 shows examplesof logos 908 that may have been clipped (cut, pasted and formatted) froma corporate Web site, using the logo management general module 1108.

User Management General Module

A user management general module 1110 loaded on the present interactiveTV device enables the creation, modification and deletion of users anduser profiles. According to the present invention, each user of theinteractive TV device may be identified within the device by a uniqueuser identification number (User ID). This user ID may be exclusivelyinternal to the interactive TV device and may not be known to the user.According to an embodiment of the present invention, users may accesstheir profile or profiles and/or login to the present interactive TVdevice by selecting their picture 1042, 1044, 1046, 1048 or 1050(alternatively, some other personalized graphic) from among the picturesof other users of the device, as shown in FIG. 12. Each of the userlogos is associated with a unique user ID. Each user may be representedwithin the device by a distinctive logo (their picture, for example), inthe same manner as a TV channel is represented by its own distinctivelogo. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a userprofile may be defined by and/or include one or more of the following:

-   -   a) A user ID number, which may be assigned sequentially (for        example, a 16-bit user ID number may provide for up to 64K        users, although the present invention is not limited to 64K        users);    -   b) The user's logo, consisting of the user's photograph or other        distinguishing graphic. This represents the link between the        user and his or her profile;    -   c) An identification of the last channel (cable, satellite,        etc.) selected by the user;    -   d) The number of channels defined for this user (from 1 to 979        channels from among the 64K possible channels, for        example—although 64K channels is merely an exemplary and        non-limiting number of possible channels);    -   e) The channel table, which includes the list of channels        assigned to this user, together with its associated logo (note        that two or more users may access to the same channel through        different logos);    -   f) The user's personal password, which enables the user to        protect his or her profile from other users of the device. The        user may also lock a recording from unauthorized access through        the use of his or her password;    -   g) The default recording quality for recordings made for this        user. This default recording quality specifies the quality of        any recording by this user unless overridden by the user or        specified by the program to be recorded or some other source        such as a programming guide, for example. The default recording        quality may, for example, be one of three possible quality        levels, such as “Film” (best quality recording), “Documentary”        (medium recording quality) or “News” (lowest recording quality,        and/or    -   h) The user's applications table. This table defines the user's        access rights to the applications loaded onto the present        interactive TV device and the location of user and        application-specific data.        Channel Configuration General Module

A channel configuration general module 1112 loaded on the presentinteractive TV device enables the configuration and management ofchannels. According to an embodiment of the present invention, thechannels may be organized into four principal groups; namely, tunerchannels, satellite channels, Web channels and resource channels, forexample. The channels may have characteristics that are common to allchannels across groups and characteristics that are only associated withindividual channels and/or to channels within a group.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the channelconfiguration information that is common to all channels across groups,according to an embodiment of the present invention, may include:

-   -   A) The channel ID. The channel ID may be assigned sequentially        and enables a unique identification of each channel within the        device. This (16-bit, for example) number is preferably internal        to the interactive TV device and unknown to the user.    -   B) The channel type. The channel type information enables the        identification of the type of channel and dictates the choice of        software module that is used to initialize the channel. The type        of channel information may be stored in a table, which may        specify a number of channel types, such as tuner, VCR, DVD, Web,        Camera, Auxiliary and Satellite, for example.    -   C) The logo associated with the channel. The channel logo        represents the link between the channel and the user. For the        user, the channel logo identifies a channel (although the same        logo may be associated with more than one channel). For example,        each channel logo may be identified with a unique (32-bit, for        example) logo identifier (logo ID);    -   D) Personalized Settings. The personalized setting enable the        user to modify various characteristics of the composite video        signal, including, for example, contrast, brightness, color        saturation, tint, volume and the like.

Channels of the “tuner” type enable the user to access analog videostreams over the analog bus 138 (see FIG. 1). Each channel requires thatone of the tuners (see reference numeral 108 in FIG. 1) of the presentinteractive TV device be tuned to a specific frequency. Each tunerchannel is addressed by a channel number, which channel numberassociates a frequency range to a number. For example, when a userwishes to view CNN® and enters the channel number 20 for CNN®, thepresent device selects the optimum frequency for best reception withinthe range of frequencies for that channel number, in real time. Theinformation that is associated only with channels of the “tuner” typeinclude the channel number, the source (e.g., cable or antenna), thecountry which, together with the channel type enables the determinationof the frequencies of the available channels and the video format (e.g.,NTSC, PAL or SECAM).

Channels of the “Satellite” type are digital channels that may beaccessible via the DVB bus (see bus 128 in FIG. 1). The information thatis unique to satellite channels may include the address of the channel,the transponder to which the channel belongs and the video format of thechannel (e.g., NTSC, PAL or SECAM).

“Web” channels are digital channels that enable Internet access anddisplay Web pages of specific Web servers. Once the Web channel islaunched, Web channels allow Web surfing in the customary manner. Theonly information that is initially necessary is the Universal ResourceLocator (URL) of the Web server of the desired homepage (which may be anoffline homepage).

Channels of the type “Resource” belong to an umbrella categoryestablished to group all the remaining resources available to thepresent interactive TV device. These channels each have a uniqueresource channel identifier within a reserved range of 980 to 1001 (forexample), which enables the present interactive device to distinguishbetween them and apply appropriate processing to each type of resource.A correspondence table may be provided to associate the resource channelidentifiers with specific resources. For example, the resource channelidentifiers may be allocated in the following manner: 980 to 989reserved for Blue Tooth-enabled devices, 990 reserved for the camerachannel (output from the camera 504), 991 reserved for auxiliarydevices, 997 for the PVR (personal video recorder configured todigitally record and store video on the disk storage 166—see FIG. 1—orother mass storage device), 998 for the DVD channel (video output formthe integrated DVD player/recorder 516) and resource channel identifier1001 may be reserved for settings relative to the tuner and satelliteschannels. Other channel assignments may be made within the context ofthe present invention, as those of skill may recognize.

Data Structures

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the interactive TVdevice may operate upon four base indices. These base indices mayinclude:

-   -   1) a 16-bit (for example) channel ID base index 1114 (for 64K        possible channels of which the first 10 may be assigned        automatically upon initialization of the device and sequentially        thereafter);    -   2) an 8-bit (for example) application ID base index 1116 (for a        potential 255 definable applications in the exemplary case        wherein the application ID base index is an 8-bit number, only        one being shown in FIG. 11), wherein ID1 is preferably assigned        to the “Home” application to be detailed below, ID2 is        preferably assigned to a videoconferencing application as also        detailed below, the remaining applications being assigned an        application ID in a sequential manner;    -   3) a 16-bit (for example) user ID base index 1118, assigned upon        the addition of a new user, and    -   4) a 32-bit (for example) logo ID base index 1120, assigned        sequentially upon creating or obtaining a logo (by cutting a        .JPG logo from a corporate Web page, for example);

From these four base indices, any combination of user, resource, channeland logo may be defined, to enable each user to utilize the resources ofthe present device and to personalize their interactive TV experience.Preferably, none of the four base indices 1114, 1116, 1118 and 1120include any application-specific information, to enable the applicationsto remain independent of the base indices and to utilize the baseindices in any desired manner.\

The present interactive TV device may maintain a base data structure1128 containing general and current system information. The base datastructure 1128 may include, for example, the User ID of the currentuser, the total number of assigned user IDs, the total number ofassigned channel IDs, the total number of application IDs defined withinthe device, the system password, and general settings, such as contrast,brightness, hue, saturation and volume, for example.

As also shown in FIG. 11, the present interactive TV device may alsoinclude one or more application data structures 1126, each associatedwith an application 1130 loaded and/or running on the device. Accordingto an embodiment of the present invention, each application datastructure 1126 may include information that is required by and specificto the associated application 1130. An application data structure 1126may include:

-   -   a) an application number, which may be a chronologically and        sequentially assigned unique number assigned at the time the        associated application was installed;    -   b) a description of the application, and    -   c) any application-specific information.

The present interactive TV device may also include a plurality ofchannel data structures 1124. According to the present invention, eachof the resources available to the interactive TV device is utilized andtreated as a channel. The channel data structures 1124, therefor,describe the resources. Each channel data structure 1124 may include oneor more (or all) of the following:

-   -   a) the channel ID, which is a chronologically assigned channel        identifier;    -   b) the type of channel (tuner, satellite, PVR, DVD, Web, Camera,        Auxiliary, for example);    -   c) the logo associated with the channel;    -   d) the address (e.g., frequency) of the channel and the        multi-channel package to which the channel belongs;    -   e) the type of antenna (antenna or cable);    -   f) the country for the tuner frequency range;    -   g) the video format (e.g., NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc.);    -   h) personalized settings, such as contrast, brightness, hue,        saturation, sound volume;    -   i) the URL address associated with the channel (for Web        channels).

One or more of the available channels may be reserved and dedicated tospecific resources, such as camera, auxiliary, DVD, PVR and/or settings,for example.

Each application 1130 may manage its own user data structure 1122. Thisenables each application to manage its own data, to keep confidentialprivate or business information secure, for example. Each user datastructure may include one or more of the following:

-   -   a) the user ID;    -   b) the last used tuner channel;    -   c) the number of channels defined for the user;    -   d) the user's password;    -   e) the user's default recording speed;    -   f) the user's picture (managed in the same manner as a logo);    -   g) the channel table (contains channel IDs and logos);    -   h) the user's application table, including access authorizations        and the address of the application and user-specific data.        The Home Application

As shown in FIG. 12, the home application 1200 utilizes informationcontained in the data structures 1122, 1124, 1126 and 1128 and the baseindices 1114, 1116, 1118 and 1120 that are updated by the generalmodules 1106, 1108, 1110 and 1112. The home application enables thepresent interactive TV device to:

-   -   a) display a tuner channel;    -   b) display a satellite channel;    -   c) display a video recording;    -   d) display a DVD video;    -   e) display a Web site;    -   f) record a tuner channel;    -   g) record a satellite channel;    -   h) cause programmed events to execute;    -   i) edit a video;    -   j) carry out a videoconference.

As shown in FIG. 12, the home application 1200 may include a mastermodule 1218 that controls a number of slave modules 1202-1216 as well asthe resources 1220 available to the interactive TV device (keyboard 518,camera 504, cursor, DVD 516, pointing device 520 etc.) and allocatesthem according to the requirements of the currently operating and/orfuture tasks. To insure an orderly operation of all of the tasks, themaster module 1218 and the slave modules 1202-1216 may communicate usinga master-slave protocol wherein all communications are initiated by themaster module 1218. The slave modules 1202-1216 may interact with oneanother, as may be the case wherein the slave module managing recordings(1210) interacts with the slave module that displays channels (1202).The interaction between slave modules, however, is preferably managed bythe master module 1218. When an event occurs requiring a slave module1202-1216, all of the information related to the event (from a keyboard518, cursor or other resource) is received by the master module 1218which then sends all required information to the appropriate slavemodule(s) 1202-1216.

As shown in FIG. 12, the home application 1200 may include thefollowing:

-   -   a) A channel display slave module 1202. Functionally, the        channel display slave module 1202 analyzes the resource needs of        a channel as a function of the channel type (e.g., tuner,        satellite, DVD, Web, etc.). The channel display slave module        1202 then requests all necessary resources from the master        module 1218 and configures the allocated resources to launch the        channel on the display 802. The channel display slave module        1202 is called by all of the slave modules that must display a        channel.    -   b) A recording manager slave module 1204. This slave module        manages the library of video recordings (copy, deletion,        transfer to and from disk 166, DVD-RAM, etc.), the selection of        a recording and the launch of a playback of a previous        recording.    -   c) A DVD manager slave module 1206. This slave modules enables        the launch of a playback of a DVD disk and to manage all of the        common functions of a DVD reader/recorder such as shown at 516        in FIG. 5, including menu, language, chapter, angle, up, down,        left, right, valid, playback, fast forward, fast backward,        pause, stop and slow motion, for example. This same module 1206        may also be invoked upon the playback and display of a digital        recording (thereby providing the conventional PVR functions of        playback, pause, fast-forward, etc.).    -   d) A videoconference slave module 1216. This slave module        manages the users (videoconference participants), establishes        the video link with the remote videoconference participant(s),        controls the local and remote camera(s) (such as shown at 504 in        FIGS. 4 and 5) and controls the video and audio streams to        insure the success of the videoconference.    -   e) An events manager slave module 1208. This slave module        manages all current and future events within the present        interactive TV device. The events manager slave module 1208 may        access an events database 1222 (or some other structure        configured to store events information), which may include an        entry for each current and future event carried out or to be        carried out by the home application 1200 running on the present        interactive TV device. The events database 1222 may, according        to an embodiment of the present invention, store an event ID,        which is a chronologically-assigned number for each event, an        indication of the type of event (display of a channel, recording        of a channel, etc.), the frequency of the event, the start and        end date and time of the event, the channel to record, the        source and destination of the event (to copy a video stream, for        example), the priority of the event, the speed of the recording,        the user-owner of the event, the type of event, the password        assigned to the event by the user and/or a description of the        event, for example.    -   f) A recording manager slave module 1210, which manages all        recordings made on the present interactive TV device;    -   g) A-30 minutes manager slave module 1212, which enables, for        example, the playback of a video stream to resume at a point in        time that is 30 minutes prior to the current playback time (in        effect, a function that plays back the last 30 minutes of        video), and    -   h) A video editor slave module 1214, which enables the user to        edit a stored video stream using a full function video editor.

The master module 1218 may also access a library database 1224 (or someother structure configured to store library information). The librarydatabase 1224 may be configured to enable the slave modules 1202-1216and/or the master module 1218 to manage the video and/or soundrecordings stored within the present interactive TV device. According toan embodiment of the present invention, the recording library database1224 may store an entry (a record in a table, for example) for eachrecording present within the present within, accessible to (via anexternal drive, for example) and/or created by the present interactiveTV device. Indeed, such recordings may be physically located within thedevice (on a magnetic hard disk drive such as shown at 166 in FIG. 1,for example) and/or on a compact disk or DVD-RAM recorded by the presentinteractive device. Alternatively still the library database 1224 mayinclude entries of recordings stored at a remote location (such as aremote server) and accessible though a network, such as shown at 510 inFIG. 5. The library database 1224 may store, for each recording, thename of the recording, a description of the recording, the location(e.g., address) of the recording on the hard disk (see, for examplereference 166 in FIG. 1), on a DVD-RAM and/or on the network 510 such asan Internet Protocol (IP) address on the network 510, the date of therecording, the time of the recording, the duration of the recording, thechannel from which the recording was made, the user of the recording,the type of recording and/or the password (if any) associated with therecording, for example.

FIG. 13 shows two participants A and B engaged in a videoconferenceutilizing the present interactive TV devices 502 and/or theauto-tracking videoconference camera 400 of the present invention. It isunderstood that participants A and B form no part of the presentinvention and are shown herein as stick figures for reference purposesonly. As shown, an interactive TV device 502 ₁ is oriented facingparticipant A such that the auto-tracking camera 504 thereof fixesvideoconference participant A in its field of view. Similarly, theinteractive TV device 502 ₂ or the auto-tracking camera 400 is disposedfacing participant B. Participants A and B may be geographicallyseparated from one another, while the interactive TV device 502 ₂ or theauto-tracking camera 400 may be coupled to one another through a highspeed connections to the network 510. The interactive TV device 502 ₁ isconnected to a display 508 ₁ while the interactive TV device 502 ₂ orthe auto-tracking camera 400 is connected to a display 508 ₂. Byselecting the videoconferencing application (thereby invoking thevideoconference slave module 1216 of FIG. 12), the users may carry out afull motion, real time videoconference. For example, user A may chooseto use two quarter screen 1304 and 1306 of the display 508 ₁ to showimages of user B and him or herself, respectively. The right-hand sideof the display 508 ₁ may show a pull out strip 746 that displays iconsand other information relevant to the configuration of the in-progressvideoconference. A visual indicator on the pull out strip 746, such asthe colored strip 1308 may be provided to indicate, for example, thathorizontal scrolling is available. Similarly, each of the quarterscreens 1304 and 1306 may also include a visual indicator 1310 (such asa thin colored strip) to indicate a properly configured connectionbetween user A and user B. Alternatively, the visual indicator mayinform the user of the state of the currently active quarter screen(s)by position and/or color, for example. For a recording for example, thevisual indicator 1310 may be located to the left hand side of thequarter screen when the recording is proceeding normally and may belocated at the bottom of the quarter screen when the recording is notproceeding normally. Alternatively still the colored strip 1308 may begreen in color when the videoconference between users A and B isproperly configured and may be turned to red when improperly configured,when excessive network traffic interferes with the videoconference or toindicate some other problem. Other combinations of strip position and/orcolor may be implemented within the context of the present invention.For example, audio signals may also alert the user of the state of anyof the currently active quarter screens. Such visual indicators arepreferably always visible, without any action by the user. As shown at508 ₂, each participant may choose to view the other participant(s) infull screen mode.

The present invention and the system shown in FIG. 13 are also wellsuited to face-to-face videoconferencing activities within the ecommercearena. Indeed, the present invention allows consumers to directlyinterface directly with real human (or virtual) representatives ofonline merchants for the purpose of ordering goods and services. Suchapplications are disclosed in co-pending and commonly assigned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 09/514,041, entitled “Methods, Systems andApparatus For Electronic Face-To-Face Business And Retail Brokerage”filed on Feb. 25, 2000, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporatedherein in its entirety.

While the foregoing detailed description has described preferredembodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that theabove description is illustrative only and not limiting of the disclosedinvention. Other modifications may occur to those of skill in this art.Thus, the present invention to be limited only by the claims as setforth below.

1-77. (canceled)
 78. An interactive device configured to display atleast one selectively viewable pull out strip on a display, each of theat least one pull out strip originating from a predetermined one of thefour sides of the display and being configured to extend toward anopposite one of the four sides in response to user interaction, eachpull out strip displaying at least one of menu selections, icons andtelevision channel logos.
 79. The interactive device of claim 78,wherein the device is configured to display four selectively viewablepull out strips on the display, each of the four selectively viewablepull out strips originating from a respective one of the four sides ofthe display and extending toward an opposite one of the four sides,responsive to user interaction.
 80. The interactive device of claim 79,wherein each of the four pull out strips is configured to be pulled outfrom one of the four sides of the display upon selection by an inputdevice, each of the four pull out strips further being configured to beout of view when not selected or in use.
 81. The interactive device ofclaim 78, wherein at least one of the four pull out strips isscrollable.
 82. The interactive device of claim 78, wherein one of theicons may include an image of a user, the selection of which invoking auser management general module that is configured to enable thecreation, modification and deletion of a user and a user profile. 83.The interactive television device of claim 82, wherein the user profilemay include at least one of: a unique user identification number; a userlogo, the user logo including an image of the user; an identification ofa last television channel selected by the user; a number of televisionchannels defined for the user; a television channel table, thetelevision channel table including a list of television channelsassigned to the user; a personal password of the user; a defaultrecording quality for recordings made for the user, and an applicationstable for the user, the application table defining access rights for theuser to the applications loaded onto the interactive TV device and alocation of user and application-specific data.
 84. The interactivetelevision device of claim 78, wherein the device is further configuredto display incoming signals either in a full screen format or in aformat including up to four independent quarter screen segments on thedisplay.
 85. The interactive television device of claim 84, wherein thefour independent quarter screen segments may be configured to display atleast one of a web browser, an email client, and a videoconferencingsession, a television channel.
 86. The interactive television device ofclaim 78, further comprising: an input, the input being configured toaccept a plurality of input streams; an output, the output beingconfigured to selectively output a plurality of output streams; a firstdigital bus connected between the input and output, the first digitalbus being uninterrupted between the input and the output; an analog busconnected between the input and the output, the analog bus including avideo signal decoder coupled to the input and a video signal encodercoupled to the output, and a graphics processing assembly coupled to thefirst digital bus and to the analog bus.
 87. The interactive televisiondevice of claim 78, wherein the device is configured to treat allincoming video streams as a channel that is accessible to a user in asame manner as a television channel.
 88. The interactive televisiondevice of claim 78, wherein each of the at least one selectivelyviewable pull out strip is configured to display at least one ofcommunications-related information; television channels, user andprofile management information and events management and deviceconfiguration related information.
 89. The interactive television deviceof claim 78, wherein each of the at least one selectively viewable pullout strips may define a first section and a second section, the firstsection being configured to display at least one of menu selections andicons, the second section being configured to display at least onetelevision channel logo.
 90. The interactive television device of claim78, wherein each of the at least one selectively viewable pull outstrips may define, when pulled out, an initially viewable zone and aninitially hidden zone, the initially viewable zone being at leastinitially viewable when the pull out strip is pulled out, the initiallyhidden zone remaining hidden from view until the pull out strip isscrolled.
 91. The interactive television device of claim 78, wherein oneof the pull out strips is configured to display an icon representativeof each user of the device, and wherein each user representative icon isconfigured to enable, when selected, configuration of user preferences.92. The interactive television device of claim 91, wherein the userrepresentative icon may include a photo of the user.
 93. A method forenabling user interaction with an interactive television device,comprising displaying at least one selectively viewable pull out stripon a display, each of the at least one pull out strip originating from apredetermined one of the four sides of the display and being configuredto extend toward an opposite one of the four sides in response to userinteraction, each pull out strip displaying at least one ofuser-selectable menu selections, icons and television channel logos. 94.The method of claim 93, wherein the displaying step is configured todisplay four selectively viewable pull out strips on the display, eachof the four selectively viewable pull out strips originating from arespective one of the four sides of the display and extending toward anopposite one of the four sides.
 95. The method of claim 94, wherein thedisplaying step is carried out with each of the four pull out stripsbeing configured to be pulled out from one of the four sides of thedisplay upon selection by an input device, each of the four pull outstrips further being configured to be out of view when not selected orin use.
 96. The method of claim 93, wherein the displaying step iscarried out with at least one of the four pull out strips is scrollable.97. The method of claim 93, wherein one of the icons may include animage of a user, the selection of which invoking a user managementgeneral software module that is configured to enable the creation,modification and deletion of a user and a user profile.
 98. The methodof claim 97, wherein the user profile may include at least one of: aunique user identification number; a user logo, the user logo includingan image of the user; an identification of a last television channelselected by the user; a number of television channels defined for theuser; a television channel table, the television channel table includinga list of television channels assigned to the user; a personal passwordof the user; a default recording quality for recordings made for theuser, and an applications table for the user, the application tabledefining access rights for the user to the applications loaded onto theinteractive TV device and a location of user and application-specificdata.
 99. The method of claim 93, further comprising a step ofdisplaying incoming signals either in a full screen format or in aformat including up to four independent quarter screen segments on thedisplay.
 100. The method of claim 99, wherein the four independentquarter screen segments may be configured to display at least one of aweb browser, an email client, and a videoconferencing session, atelevision channel.
 101. The method of claim 93, further including astep of handling all incoming video streams to the interactivetelevision device as a channel that is accessible to a user in a samemanner as a television channel.
 102. The method of claim 93, wherein theat least one selectively viewable pull out strip is configured todisplay at least one of communications-related information; televisionchannels, user and profile management information and events managementand device configuration related information.
 103. The method of claim93, wherein each of the at least one selectively viewable pull outstrips may define a first section and a second section, the firstsection being configured to display at least one of menu selections andicons, and the second section being configured to display at least onetelevision channel logo.
 104. The method of claim 93, wherein each ofthe at least one selectively viewable pull out strips may define, whenpulled out, an initially viewable zone and an initially hidden zone, theinitially viewable zone being at least initially viewable when the pullout strip is pulled out, the method further comprising a step ofdisplaying the initially hidden zone when the pull out strip isscrolled.
 105. The method of claim 93, further comprising a step ofdisplaying an icon representative of each user of the device on at leastone of the at least one pull out strips, the user representative iconbeing configured to enable, when selected, configuration of userpreferences.
 106. The interactive television device of claim 105,wherein the user representative icon may include a photo of the user.107. A graphical user interface for helping a user to perform tasks insoftware, the graphical user interface comprising: at least oneselectively viewable pull out strip, each of the at least one pull outstrips being configured to originate from a predetermined one of thefour sides of a display and being configured to extend toward anopposite one of the four sides in response to user interaction, eachpull out strip displaying at least one of menu selections, icons andtelevision channel logos.
 108. The graphical user interface of claim107, configured to display four selectively viewable pull out strips onthe display, each of the four selectively viewable pull out stripsoriginating from a respective one of the four sides of the display andextending toward an opposite one of the four sides.
 109. The graphicaluser interface of claim 108, wherein each of the four pull out strips isconfigured to be pulled out from one of the four sides of the displayupon selection by an input device, each of the four pull out stripsfurther being configured to be out of view when not selected or in use.110. The graphical user interface of claim 107, wherein at least one ofthe four pull out strips is scrollable.
 111. The graphical userinterface of claim 107, wherein one of the icons may include an image ofa user, a selection of which invoking a user management general softwaremodule that is configured to enable the creation, modification anddeletion of a user and a user profile.
 112. The graphical user interfaceof claim 111, wherein the user profile may include at least one of: aunique user identification number; a user logo, the user logo includingan image of the user; an identification of a last television channelselected by the user; a number of television channels defined for theuser; a television channel table, the television channel table includinga list of television channels assigned to the user; a personal passwordof the user; a default recording quality for recordings made for theuser, and an applications table for the user, the application tabledefining access rights for the user to the applications and a locationof user and application-specific data.
 113. The graphical user interfaceof claim 107, further configured to display incoming signals either in afull screen format or in a format including up to four independentquarter screen segments on the display.
 114. The graphical userinterface of claim 113, wherein the four independent quarter screensegments may be configured to display at least one of a web browser, anemail client, and a videoconferencing session, a television channel.115. The graphical user interface of claim 107, wherein each of the atleast one selectively viewable pull out strip is configured to displayat least one of communications-related information; television channels,user and profile management information and events management and deviceconfiguration related information.
 116. The graphical user interface ofclaim 107, wherein each of the at least one selectively viewable pullout strips may define a first section and a second section, the firstsection being configured to display at least one of menu selections andicons, and the second section being configured to display at least onetelevision channel logo.
 117. The graphical user interface of claim 107,wherein each of the at least one selectively viewable pull out stripsmay define, when pulled out, an initially viewable zone and an initiallyhidden zone, the initially viewable zone being at least initiallyviewable when the pull out strip is pulled out, the initially hiddenzone remaining hidden from view until displayed responsive to the pullout strip being scrolled.
 118. The graphical user interface of claim107, wherein one of the pull out strips is configured to display an iconrepresentative of each user of the device, and wherein each userrepresentative icon is configured to enable, when selected,configuration of user preferences.
 119. The graphical user interface ofclaim 118, wherein the user representative icon may include a photo ofthe user.